This Friday marks the beginning of a new Santa Barbara summer concert series at places where any child can receive a free, healthy meal -- without paperwork or qualifications.

This Friday marks the beginning of a new Santa Barbara summer concert series at places where any child can receive a free, healthy meal — without paperwork or qualifications. Youth bands and DJ’s affiliated with the Rockshop Academy and Notes for Notes will be performing at summer meal sites to add even more fun and community spirit to these already popular programs. The youth who play in the bands The Wha Wha’s, State of Grace, Nevermind, The Voice of Reason and DJs Alan and Serenade are doing their part to help all kids have a healthy, happy summer. The first concert is at noon this Friday at the Westside Community Center, 432 West Victoria St. in Santa Barbara.

Summer should be a time of carefree fun but it is also when hunger is the most challenging for the nearly 22,000 food insecure kids in our county. With a campaign called Food4Kids, partners throughout the county are working together to increase participation in the 34 places where children can drop in to enjoy a meal. No Kid Hungry’s national spokesperson, Jeff Bridges, who lives in Santa Barbara with his family has spearheaded the effort. Attached is a list of the 34 summer meal sites throughout the county.

This summer the community partners developed a texting program to make it easier for families to find out where summer meals are served. Families throughout Santa Barbara County can text Food4Kids to 877-877 to find a summer meals site in their neighborhood. The texting program is sponsored by the Arby’s Foundation.

“At Rockshop Academy we put a large amount of value not only on music, but taking care of the community where we live,” says George Pendergast, executive director of the Rockshop Academy and drummer for the band Dishwalla. “I’m thrilled to see our local youth musicians getting involved and doing just that.”

“Summer is the hardest time for kids in need, when school is out, and their main source of meals is gone. We need to make sure the children of Santa Barbara County have the nutritious food they need,” said Bridges.

The latest data shows that there are almost 22,000 food insecure children in Santa Barbara County. That’s more than 23% of children in Santa Barbara who don’t have ready or reliable access to the food they need to lead healthy, active, and productive lives. We know that 59% of low-income children (15,973 kids) who eat school lunch are not also getting a school breakfast. And 83% of children who eat school lunch are not getting a free summer meal when school is out of session and those lunches aren’t available.

Fortunately Santa Barbara County has many dedicated and effective government and non-profit service providers who are partnering to tackle the problem of childhood hunger.

Please Join Us – Schedule below:

July 19th, 12:00 – 1:30pm

Westside Neighborhood Center 423 West Victoria St., Santa Barbara

Bands: State of Grace and The Voice of Reason

July 26th 12:00 – 1:30 pm

Franklin Elementary School: 1111 East Mason St., Santa Barbara

Bands: The Wha Wha’s and Nevermind

Aug 9th Two venues for summer’s finale, both 12:00 – 1:30pm

McKinley Elementary School 350 Loma Alta, Santa Barbara

Bands: Combination of various Rockshop Academy Players

Westside Community Center - 423 W. Victoria, Santa Barbara

DJ Alan and DJ Serenade - . Hour-long set.

About Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign:

No child should grow up hungry in America, but one in five children struggles with hunger. Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry® campaign is ending childhood hunger in America by ensuring all children get the healthy food they need, every day. The No Kid Hungry campaign connects kids in need to effective nutrition programs like school breakfast and summer meals and teaches low-income families to cook healthy, affordable meals through its Cooking Matters program. This work is accomplished through the No Kid Hungry network, made up of private citizens, public officials, nonprofits, business leaders and others providing innovative hunger solutions in their communities. Join us at NoKidHungry.org.

About Notes for Notes:

Notes for Notes® is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing youth with free access to music instruments, instruction, and recording studio environments so that music may become a profoundly positive influence in their lives. The organization builds and operates recording studio environments called MusicBox Studios® that are packed with electric guitars, drums, keyboards, turntables, digital music workstations, and full recording facilities. The MusicBox Studios are located at 2 Boys & Girls Clubs in Santa Barbara, CA; 2 in Nashville, TN; 1 in Los Angeles; and coming soon to Ventura, CA and Detroit, MI. Please visit notesfornotes.org for more information.

About Rockshop Academy:

Based in Santa Barbara, California, Rockshop Academy was started by Dishwalla / Penfiteen Club drummer and Mike’s Drum Shop owner George Pendergast, and David Young, the band’s former manager, who guided Dishwalla from garage band to gold records and the #1 Billboard Rock Song of the Year.

Pendergast and Young launched Rockshop Academy in 2009 to foster the next generation of aspiring musicians in the Santa Barbara area with the guidance of seasoned pros from the generation that put Santa Barbara on the music map.

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